EXCITEMENT is building for the opening of the new North Warwickshire and Hinckley College campus which now stands proudly in the town centre.

The new £12.8 million building in Lower Bond Street is set to open its doors to its first students next month and The Hinckley Times was allowed in this week for a sneak preview.

The eye-catching facility boasts a library, lecture theatre with extendable seats, changing rooms, conference room, faith and prayer room, shop and also the college’s first communal staff room, as well as environmentally friendly aspects such as rain water collection, a wind turbine which generates power to the building, underfloor heating and recycling facilities.

Hi-tech classrooms throughout will be used for a variety of subjects including life drawing, woodwork, photography, graphics, film making, music, as well as the generic subjects.

And should all of that not be enough, then the outside of the building even appears to change colour as you walk past it due to the painted cladding on the outside.

Andy Crowter, the college’s assistant principal facilities, is ecstatic that everything has gone to plan since work started last March and is particularly proud that all the different aspects of the campus have fallen in to place.

He said: “It has been fantastic to be part of this from the very start and students who have been coming in for interviews have been really excited by it.

“We have also spoken to staff in consultation about what they wanted in the classrooms, to get what they wanted in there, and also the classrooms not only have occupancy sensors so they know when people leave the room, but also brightness sensors so it knows how much natural light is coming in through the windows.

“There is also eco-friendly factors including there being very little air conditioning as it is very expensive and not particularly environmentally friendly, so the units on the roof take air out of the building, take the heat out of it and then pump the fresh air back in.”